


Friend or Foe

by NanakiBH



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Begging, Bullying, Denial of Feelings, Embarrassment, Feet, Laughter, M/M, Restraints, Situational Humiliation, Teasing, Tickling, Verbal Humiliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-09-01 12:25:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16765114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NanakiBH/pseuds/NanakiBH
Summary: Ash is willing to be friends. Gary has other ideas.





	Friend or Foe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AngelBoy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelBoy/gifts).



> Here's another lil' tickle fic at the request of AngelBoy! This time, it's Gary/Ash. Hope y'all dig it!

It was about time for them to head back to town.

Misty was busy shopping and Brock was hanging out at the local Pokémon daycare, jotting down tips he learned from the breeders there. Since they were both doing their own separate things, Ash and Pikachu headed into the tall grass right outside of town for a little bit of sightseeing. Although there weren't many wild Pokémon around, it was a nice day for a leisurely walk.

The sky was clear. The clouds were far away.

As he walked along the dirt path with Pikachu by his side, Ash found his mind wandering, thinking about the future. Sooner or later, he realized that Brock and Misty would have to go back home. It was fun, traveling with them, but they had their own separate goals. They couldn't be with each other forever...

New journeys beckoned to them from the distance. Ash was anxious to get a move on, but he was afraid to think about what he would leave behind. He and Pikachu would see new towns and discover new Pokémon. They'd meet new trainers and test themselves against them, too. But nobody would ever be able to replace his friends.

Ash felt closer to them than anyone. There wasn't anyone else who knew him as well as the did. The three of them were connected by a bond formed from the memories they shared. Nobody else could rival that bond.

Well...

When he really started to think about it, maybe there was _one_ person... A certain rival.

But Ash refused to think of them as 'close'.

Gary was more like a pain in his side. He always showed up at the worst times and all he did was gloat. But... He wasn't always bad. Every now and then, Ash could've sworn he saw a glimmer of _something_ inside of him – something that felt an awful lot like friendship. It was true that Gary cared about him more than most, at least. Gary surely wouldn't have given him so much attention if he actually hated him.

Every time they ran into each other, the truth of the matter became more apparent. Whenever he saw Gary's annoying, smug face, Ash would tense up, awaiting the inevitable barrage of irritating remarks. That reflex remained, but he found himself gradually relaxing around him more quickly each time they met. Gary's insults didn't sound as sincere as they had in the beginning. Ash couldn't tell if his ears had changed or if it was Gary's attitude itself.

It didn't sound that ridiculous to think that he and Gary could be friends someday. If Gary continued to get softer, then maybe he could talk to him normally without feeling obligated to hurl insults, and then Ash wouldn't have to feel so defensive around him anymore. It seemed possible. Along their journey, he'd seen that people were capable of changing in big ways.

“Hm... What do you think, Pikachu?” he asked. Stopping for a moment, he crouched down beside his little partner. “Could Gary be our friend someday?”

Pikachu looked up at him and gave him an incredulous look. He must've been wondering where that idea came from all of a sudden.

Ash laughed nervously. “Y-Yeah, that was a silly idea, wasn't it? Well, it was just a thought. With the way he is right now, I doubt we could be real friends. I can barely talk to him.”

He stood back up and brushed some imaginary dust off his jeans.

“Well, let's get going. Brock and Misty are waiting.”

Pikachu scampered after him as Ash continued walking. They were heading to the Pokémon Center. Brock said that after he finished up at the daycare, he would pick up some ingredients and make lunch for them. Just thinking about Brock's wonderful cooking was enough to make Ash's stomach growl hungrily.

All of a sudden, he came to a stop when he looked up and saw someone standing in the middle of the path, blocking his way.

Speak of the devil... It was like he summoned him just by thinking about him.

If he pretended not to notice him, he wondered if he could just walk around him.

“Ash Ketchum, there you are!”

Ash's shoulders jolted when he heard that boy's obnoxious voice calling his name said so loudly. Anyone within the nearby radius would have heard him. Ash was surprised that the wild Pidgeys around them hadn't been startled away.

Reluctantly, Ash lifted his head, awkwardly adjusting his cap in front of his face so he didn't have to look Gary in the eyes. His smirk always burned him up. After he was just starting to think about him in a fond kind of way, he didn't want all of his goodwill to be erased the moment he saw him. He was still hoping that something could change – he just didn't expect anything to change immediately.

It was for the best if he could get him out of his hair quickly.

“Hey there, Gary. Did you miss me?” he asked. Steeling his nerves, he raised his gaze and tried to meet Gary's eyes with confidence.

“Heh. Something like that. I thought it'd be a shame if I didn't see you before I headed off to the next gym.”

That sounded unusually nice of him. It made Ash feel suspicious. He took a glance down at Pikachu and noticed that he seemed to be on edge, too.

“Alright. That sounds fair. But what's the catch? I don't believe that you'd come to see me cuz you'd actually miss me.”

Gary approached, removing a Poké Ball from the pouch attached to his belt. “Hey, you're smart sometimes, aren't you?” he said sarcastically. “I don't care what you're up to. I just didn't want to miss my chance to thrash you one more time before I leave. So how about it? Your precious little Pikachu versus my Blastoise.”

Ugh, that was just like him.

But that was what a rival was for. Gary always seemed to be there at every turning point, there to test his strength.

He heard about Gary's Blastoise, though he hadn't seen it for himself yet. It was supposed to be incredibly strong. Ash knew that Gary wasn't unbeatable, though. Gary had already had his own share of losses. He wasn't so tough. Ash wasn't afraid of him.

“Me and Pikachu aren't pushovers anymore, you know.”

“Oh, I know that,” Gary said, spinning his ball around on the tip of one of his fingers. “I'll give credit where credit's due. I can tell that you've been putting in the work. That's why it'll be even more satisfying when I beat you. So good job, Ash. Thank you for keeping me entertained.”

Ash couldn't help but groan out loud at him.

“Alright, fine! Let's do it!” He had a feeling that he and Pikachu had the upper hand anyway. Blastoise was a water-type, weak against Pikachu's powerful electric-type moves. “If I win, then you have to tell everybody in town that Ash Ketchum is the strongest trainer from Pallet Town.”

“We're betting? Sounds good to me.” A devilish grin crossed Gary's features. “If my Blastoise wins... Hm...” He stroked his chin, thinking deeply about what he wanted Ash to do. His eyes gleamed when his decision was made. “I'm going to tickle you.”

“H-Huh? Uh... Alright, if that's really what you want.”

That didn't sound so bad. For a second, he was afraid that Gary was going to threaten him with something dangerous. Being tickled sounded a little uncomfortable, but he was sure he could handle it. Compared to what he wanted Gary to do, it was nothing.

Gary raised his Poké Ball to his lips and gave it a good luck kiss, then tossed it, releasing his Blastoise.

It was bigger than Ash thought it would be when he saw it up close. Its size was intimidating. In terms of raw strength, it probably could have trounced Pikachu with a heavy Skull Bash or one well-timed Tackle attack, but its size made it slow. It couldn't keep up with Pikachu's quick, nibble movements. It was easy for Pikachu to dodge its moves.

Cleverly, Pikachu dove into the tall grass to make it difficult for Gary's Blastoise to take aim with its water-type special attacks. That didn't discourage Gary, however. Even if his Blastoise couldn't keep up with Pikachu, Gary kept his eyes trained on each of Pikachu's moves. When the time was right, he told his Blastoise to take aim and it fired its Hydro Cannon at the moment when Pikachu emerged from the grass.

Ash hadn't expected it to know that move already. Gary must have done a lot of training since the last time they saw each other.

Pikachu cried out when he was struck by the blast of pressurized water and slammed into a nearby tree trunk. He collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily.

“Pi.. ka...”

Unfortunately, he didn't have the energy to continue and collapsed, totally spent.

“Pikachu!”

Ash ran over and knelt down by his side. Pikachu was unconscious, but he seemed alright otherwise. He didn't have any physical injuries.

“Oops. Sorry about that, Ashy,” Gary said, standing over him. “I hate to interrupt this tender moment, but now it's time for you to fulfill your half of the bet. I hope you're ready.”

“Ready for what?” Ash growled, mad that Gary expected him to do anything for him after he hurt Pikachu like that. “I need to take Pikachu to the Pokémon Center. What was it you wanted to do? Tickle me? Go ahead and get it over with. Can't be that bad...”

Gary chuckled under his breath as he retrieved his backpack from the side of the road. He crouched and unzipped it, pulling out a spool of twine. Ash couldn't imagine what he was going to use that for or why he even had something like that on him to start with, but he got a bad feeling as he watched Gary approaching him with it.

“Put your hands behind your back,” he said.

“Huh? Like this?” Ash asked, turning around, linking his wrists behind his back. As soon as he did so, Gary grabbed his wrists and started wrapping the coarse twine around them, over and over. If Misty had been there, she would have berated him for acting so gullible. “H-Hey, what are you doing? You don't need to tie my hands. If you just wanna tickle me, I'm not going to struggle.”

“Oh, I think you will,” Gary laughed.

Once his hands were bound and secured, Gary stood back and admired his handiwork with a proud grin. Ash's bad feeling about the situation began to intensify. He tested the strength of the twine around his wrists and started to sweat when he confirmed how tightly it was tied. He could still get away from him if he wanted, but he had to take Pikachu with him...

It was worth a try. He turned around and tried to run in the other direction, but he couldn't get very far, stopped abruptly. Gary had grabbed him by the waist before he could get anywhere. He just heard Gary laughing behind him, then he suddenly felt an unusual draft...

He glanced down... And his face instantly heated up and became red when he saw that his pants had been pulled down.

With a light shove to the center of Ash's back, Gary pushed him over. With his pants caught around his ankles, Ash couldn't maintain his balance. He stumbled forward, tripped, and almost fell right on his face. He flipped himself onto his back so he could glare at Gary, but he blushed intensely when he realized how exposed he felt. Even if he squirmed and struggled, his hands couldn't reach his pants to pull them back up. He wasn't flexible enough.

“Th-That was unfair!”

“Eh, it's not so bad, is it? If you're seriously embarrassed, then that just proves what a baby you are. You ought to toughen up.” He got down next to Ash and wagged a finger at him. “That's where I come in. When you think about it, you should be thanking me, Ash. If I weren't here to test your nerve, then anyone would be able to walk all over you.”

It sounded more like he just wanted to take credit for something he had nothing to do with. His progress wasn't thanks to Gary. If he had anyone to thank, then it was Misty and Brock, the friends who were always there for him.

Although he was tempted to retort, Ash bit his tongue and tried to ignore him. He looked around, trying to look for a way out. He was in quite the predicament, though. It felt hopeless. Pikachu was unconscious and there were no other people to be seen. It was just him and Gary. It would've been helpful if another trainer came along to rescue him, but the thought of being seen in that position was embarrassing in its own right.

“Let me guess... Your mommy bought those for you,” Gary said, pointing at Ash's underwear.

His mother had only packed his most embarrassing underwear. The childish Pokémon pattern on them made him feel like a little kid. Now that Gary had seen them, Ash had the feeling he was going to tease him about them forever.

Ash squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head to the side with a loud groan. He didn't want to tell him that he was right. It was too humiliating. He left Pallet Town to go on his own Pokémon adventure. As far as he was concerned, that made him as responsible as an adult, but when Gary was laughing at him like that, he felt like a lame little kid.

His eyes suddenly snapped opened when he felt one of Gary's slightly cold fingers touching his bare legs. It felt weird to be touched there by someone else, so he couldn't stop his legs from twitching. It wasn't necessarily ticklish, but it didn't feel good, either. He tried to move his legs, but he couldn't get anywhere, trapped by the pants around his ankles. As Gary's fingers crept closer to his inner thigh, the feeling became more irritating and gradually turned ticklish. It wasn't enough to make him laugh, but it did make him feel the urge to escape from it.

“Kn-Knock it off, Gary!”

“What's the problem? This is what you agreed to,” he said. His other hand joined the first, lightly tickling his fingers along the inside of both of Ash's thighs. It made Ash's legs quiver, but he still didn't laugh. “I wonder where you're most ticklish... I'm not going to let you off the hook until I make you laugh.”

He danced his fingers up Ash's thighs to his hips and kept going higher. Ash sucked in a breath when Gary reached his stomach. He knew that Gary expected him to laugh, but, for some reason, he was afraid of laughing. When it came down to it, he really just didn't want to look like an idiot in front of him. It was probably already too late to be worrying about that, though...

With the way things were going, he half-expected Gary to strip off his shirt, but it was left alone. In the long-run, that might've just made it worse. Ash expected the feeling of Gary's fingers on his stomach to be the worst of all. He hadn't anticipated how much worse it would feel when he also felt his soft, loose shirt rubbing against his skin between Gary's tickling fingers. Even when he watched Gary's hands, he wasn't able to predict the erratic movements of his fingertips. There was nothing he could do to prepare himself for the unfamiliar sensations that caused him to feel ticklish. Before long, he was already laughing despite himself.

“Ah... Ahahaha! AHAHA! HAHAHA HA!” He turned from side to side, but Gary stayed with him, relentlessly tickling him as he twisted. “Ohohaa...! AhahahaHA!”

“Heh. Look at you. So pathetic,” Gary said, sounding proud of himself. He lightly ran his fingers around Ash's middle, teasing his belly. “You're a lil' thicker than I remember. Your buddy Brock has been feeding you a little too well, hasn't he?”

Humiliated, Ash tried to breathe in between his laughter, but he quickly started to feel lightheaded from laughing so much. His short breaths just made him feel dizzy.

“Haha! Hahahahh! G-Gary, s-sto-...! AHAHA!”

“You want me to stop? Why should I? I just got started.”

Despite saying that, he did stop. His hands disappeared and Ash found himself able to breathe again.

“Ha... Hahaa... Ahaa...” A few more pitiful-sounding laughs fell from his trembling lips. He tried to calm down as best as he could and took a few long, deep breaths to get settled. The fuzzy feeling in his head remained, making his vision a little bleary. A fresh blush spread across his cheeks when he looked up and saw Gary grinning down at him. “Thanks for stopping,” he muttered.

“Who said anything about stopping? I said I wasn't finished.” He moved his hands up, prancing his fingers up the center of Ash's chest. When Ash saw his hands approaching his arms, he tried to hold his arms more tightly to his body, but he couldn't hide from his curious fingers. Gary's fingers wiggled between his arms and lightly poked and prodded at his sensitive armpits.

Ash clenched his jaw, but he couldn't hold back his laughter for long. The ticklish sensations seemed to spread all the way through his body. In moments, he could hardly think anymore, laughing with nary a concern for whether anyone else could hear.

“HAHaA!! AHAHAAA!! OHAHAHAA!!”

He was going to lose it...

Just like Pikachu, he was going to be K.O.'d...

Thankfully, Gary stopped before that fear could become a reality. He left him feeling shaken. Gary got up and left him there for a moment while he returned to his backpack. Ash heard him unzipping it and weakly lifted his head to see what he was doing.

Gary returned, holding something in his hand. It was a brush with short, dense bristles, the kind used for grooming Pokémon. Ash wasn't sure what he planned to do with it until Gary was kneeling down by his feet.

He set down the brush for a moment so he could start untying Ash's shoes. Ash didn't know if his feet were ticklish, but he was afraid of finding out. He was already more ticklish than he'd realized.

Gary slipped off Ash's shoes one at a time, then tugged off his socks. “It's not like I want to touch your gross feet, loser. I just want to hear you laugh until you can't laugh anymore. I'm sure this will do the trick.”

To get things started, he lightly ran the tip of one finger down the center of the sole of Ash's foot. His toes curled involuntarily and his legs began to quiver. Ash stole another glance at Pikachu and worried what he'd think if he woke up and saw him in that humiliating position. He'd never be able to face him again. Worse, he hoped that Misty and Brock wouldn't come looking for him. He could just imagine what they would've thought.

The moment Ash felt the bristles against the tender base of his foot, he cried out loudly. He struggled fruitlessly against the twine around his wrists and tried to pull up his knees to move his feet out of Gary's grasp, but Gary grabbed his ankles and forced his feet back down. To make sure he stayed in place, he got up and sat down on Ash's legs. It was the perfect position for him to continue his torment.

“How about this?” he asked, tickling Ash's toes with his fingertips as he moved the brush back and forth over the sole of Ash's other foot.

It was too much. In between his laughs, Ash could only moan helplessly, praying for help and simultaneously hoping that no one would see him.

“Ahaha! HAHA!! AHAHAHA! AAH- NNGH-... AHGHAHAHAHAHAAA!!”

Every time Gary ran his fingers over the tips of his toes, Ash felt an intense feeling bolt its way throughout his body. It went from the base of his foot all the way up to his head. It was almost like pain, but not quite. It was like nothing he'd ever experienced before.

“HA...! HAHAAHAA!” He didn't know what to make of that feeling, but he knew that it had to stop or else he wasn't going to be able to take it anymore.

Eventually, he couldn't even laugh anymore. The only sounds that came out of his mouth sounded like hoarse, raspy breaths. At that point, Gary finally seemed satisfied enough to stop for good. He let go of his feet and stood up, wiping his hands on the front of his shirt.

“Bleh. I think I got your loser cooties on me...” He looked down at him with a sniff. “But it was worth it to watch you lose it. Now I have the satisfaction of knowing that I'm the only person who's ever seen you looking this miserable. You better not lose to anyone else, got it? That would put all my hard work to waste.”

Ash coughed, breathing roughly. “You're... the worst...”

Gary put a foot under him and flipped him over. Taking a utility knife from his pocket, he sliced through the twine around Ash's wrists.

“Get up and pull up your pants. You look embarrassing. I wouldn't want anyone to catch me with you looking like that.”

Shamefully, Ash scrambled to his feet and hurriedly pulled up his pants and fixed his appearance. He rubbed a hand over his face, wiping away the tears and snot that came from all his laughing. He hoped that Gary didn't think he was crying because of him... It wasn't like that.

Putting away his knife, Gary got his backpack and put it over his shoulders, then started walking away.

“H-Hey!” Ash called after him. “Where do you think you're going?”

Gary stopped for a moment and turned around. “I got what I came for. There's no reason for me to stick around now. Catch ya next time, dweeb.”

Gary's face looked a little red...

Once he was out of sight, Ash sunk back down to the ground and let out a sigh.

“Why can't he ever just say what he really wants...?”

“Ash?”

Hearing his name, he looked back over his shoulder and saw Misty and Brock jogging toward him. Seeing them made him smile. He was just glad that they hadn't seen the things that happened. Fortunately, he had a feeling that Gary would keep that encounter to himself, so they wouldn't find out about it.

He scooped up Pikachu and went to join them.

His encounter with Gary should have left him feeling miserable, but... All he could do was laugh when he thought about what happened. It was almost too ridiculous to believe.

Gary was so transparent.

Really, he didn't have to be so aggressive and go out of his way just to get his attention. He already had it.


End file.
